''Circulus'' is a

double LP A double album (or double record) is an audio album that spans two units of the primary medium in which it is sold, typically either records or compact disc. A double album is usually, though not always, released as such because the recording i ...

released under

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

Chick Corea’s name, featuring performances recorded in 1970 by the free jazz group

Circle A circle is a shape consisting of all points in a plane that are at a given distance from a given point, the centre. Equivalently, it is the curve traced out by a point that moves in a plane so that its distance from a given point is con ...

, which was first released on the

Blue Note In jazz and blues, a blue note is a note that—for expressive purposes—is sung or played at a slightly different pitch from standard. Typically the alteration is between a quartertone and a semitone, but this varies depending on the musical c ...

label in 1978.Chick Corea discography
accessed January 21, 2011.

Reception

The

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

review by Scott Yanow awarded the album 4½ stars stating "The music is generally quite difficult with sound explorations emphasized over melodic development, and is much closer to the direction that Braxton would explore than what Corea would be playing two years later. But open-eared listeners who enjoy avant-garde jazz will find much to savor during these fascinating performances from one of the new music's top (if short-lived) regular groups".Yanow, S
Allmusic Review
accessed January 21, 2011

Track listing

All compositions by Chick Corea, Anthony Braxton, Dave Holland, Barry Altschul except where noted. ''Side One'' # "Drone" (Corea, Holland, Altschul) - 22:25 ''Side Two'' # "Quartet Piece No. 1" - 16:13 ''Side Three'' # "Quartet Piece No. 2" - 17:33 ''Side Four'' # "Quartet Piece No. 3" - 12:25 # "Percussion Piece" - 5:52 *Recorded at A&R Studios in New York City on April 8, 1970 (Side One), August 19, 1970 (Side Four, track 2), and August 21, 1970 (Side Two, Side Three & Side Four, track 1).

Personnel

* Chick Corea –

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

, celeste, vibes,

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

Anthony Braxton Anthony Braxton (born June 4, 1945) is an American experimental composer, educator, music theorist, improviser and multi-instrumentalist who is best known for playing saxophones, particularly the alto. Braxton grew up on the South Side of Ch ...

– alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, flute, clarinet,

contrabass clarinet The contrabass clarinet (also pedal clarinet, after the pedals of pipe organs) and contra-alto clarinet are the two largest members of the clarinet family that are in common usage. Modern contrabass clarinets are transposing instruments pitc ...

, percussion (Side Two, Side Three and Side Four) *

Dave Holland David “Dave” Holland (born 1 October 1946) is an English jazz double bassist, composer and bandleader who has been performing and recording for five decades. He has lived in the United States for over 40 years. His extensive discography r ...

– bass,

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C2, G ...

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

, percussion *

Barry Altschul Barry Altschul (born January 6, 1943, New York City) is a free jazz and hard bop drummer who first came to notice in the late 1960s for performing with pianists Paul Bley and Chick Corea. Biography Altschul is of Russian Jewish heritage, the s ...

– drums, percussion

References

{{Authority control 1978 albums Blue Note Records albums Chick Corea albums Circle (jazz band) albums

Reception

Track listing

Personnel

See also

References